Per a conversation started
here, what does everyone think about crowdsourcing the measurement of loudspeakers? There are a lot of speakers that I see enthusiasm for by audio hobbyists but never any real verification of their performance. I can test many speakers and publish the measurements, however it does take effort and time, so it is not something I am willing to do for free (the only exceptions are speakers that I am personally very interested in which I would not charge measurement fees for). Personally, measurements give me a much better idea of how the speakers sound than any subjective report (but then, I deal with this stuff frequently so I have a lot more experience correlating measurements to experience). The measurements provided would essentially be what can be seen with any of the Audioholics reviews, and perhaps a few extras that we don't normally publish. Keep in mind, I am only offering measurements, not a full review.
Here are some conditions for the speakers that can be tested:
- No speakers that Audioholics has plans to review or potentially review, obviously
- No tower speakers over 90 lbs. (or bookshelf speakers over 90 lbs. for that matter)
- No really expensive speakers, so nothing approaching five figures or over. I don't want to be held liable for really pricey stuff.
One potential issue that needs some thought is if the community wants to buy a new speaker for measurement, what should be done with that product? Kurt has suggested a raffle system where people can buy raffle tickets to win the speaker. Anyone have other ideas here?
I haven't set a final fee in mind for what i would charge, but for standard set of measurements, I am leaning around $500 per speaker, maybe more if I have to cover shipping charges. If you think that is expensive, consider that it does eat up pretty much a whole day for me. Also consider what it would cost for a full set of measurements from any other organization.
Something to keep in mind is that I do not do spin-o-rama graphs or wide vertical graphs for tower speakers. That is only for bookshelf speakers and some center channel speakers.
I am just taking a temperature here, I don't have any real plans to set anything up like this at the moment. Do you think that the audio community would be interested in funding measurements of loudspeakers that get a lot of discussion? It would put to rest the endless speculation that we sometimes see of loudspeaker performance in many social media circles. If anyone has any thoughts on this, please do not hesitate to share.